To save building space, efforts have been made recently to find solutions for elevator machineries that are flat in the direction of the shaft of the traction sheave of the elevator. A flat design makes it easy to place the hoisting machinery in the elevator shaft. It is also technically possible to place the instrument panel containing the power electronics and elevator control system in the shaft. From the point of view of maintenance and installation, however, it would be desirable to have the instrument panel in a place where it is more easily accessible than in the elevator shaft. Moreover, allowing minor operations on the machinery without entering the elevator shaft would be an advantage.
When an elevator stops e.g. between floors as a result of a disturbance, it is important to get the passengers out of the elevator fairly quickly. Elevator machineries are provided with a mechanical brake releasing device which is used to release the brake to allow the elevator to be moved. The releasing device may be fixedly mounted in conjunction with the brake, or it may consist e.g. of a lever which is placed in the brake to release it.
A feature characteristic of prior-art solutions is that the person releasing the brake has to be in the immediate vicinity of the brake when releasing it. To release the brake of an elevator machinery, the releaser has to be able to observe the behavior of the machinery because allowing the elevator to move too fast will result in the activation of the safety gear.
As development of elevator systems has led to increasingly compact and efficient elevator machineries and as the space required by the control equipment has been reduced, it is no longer strictly necessary to provide an elevator with a machine room. The elevator machinery can be placed in the top part of the elevator shaft, beside the shaft, and so on. Still, the requirement that it must be possible to manually release the brake of the elevator machinery remains. Due to the placement of the machinery, the brake may be located in a place difficult to access for releasing. This is the case e.g. when the machinery is placed in the elevator shaft.